Este artículo examina la traducción de obras de teatro en diferentes TRANS · núm. 13 · 2009 DOSSIER · 129-136 momentos de la historia del teatro francófono en Canadá. Las traducciones inglesas de las obras dramáticas en lengua francesa, que se realizaron en Québec al principio de la década de los años setenta, muestran un bilingüismo artificial que sirve para promover la cohabitación lingüística y contribuye a la especificidad de un repertorio dramático anglófono emergente en Canadá. En el Canadá occidental, un tipo de teatro reciente, francófono y bilingüe, representativo del bilingüismo real que se da en las comunidades francófonas minoritarias, pone en cuestión la traducibilidad según los modelos tradicionales. Los mecanismos de traducción basados en la puesta en escena diseñados para públicos específicos, como es el caso de los sobretítulos, permiten que la producción original mantenga su dualidad lingüística a la vez que se hace accesible para grupos más amplios y diversos, y se incrementa su visibilidad tanto en el ámbito nacional como internacional. Palabras clave: Teatro canadiense, teatro francófono, bilingüismo, traducción para la puesta en escena, sobretitulación. Bilingualism on Stage: Translating Francophone Drama Repertoires
This article examines the translation of plays at different moments in Canada in the history of French-language theatre in Canada. The English translations of French-language drama originating in Quebec at the beginning of the 1970s depict an artificial bilingualism that serves to promote linguistic cohabitation and contributes to the specificity of an emerging English-Canadian drama repertoire. In Western Canada, a recent, bilingual francophone drama, representative of the real bilingualism of French-speaking communities in a minority context, raises questions of translatability within traditional models. Performance-based translation devices designed for specific audiences, such as surtitles, allow the original production to maintain its linguistic duality while rendering it accessible to larger audiences, thus increasing its visibility both nationally and internationally. Keywords: Canadian drama, French-language drama, bilingualism, performance-based translation, surtitling. Louise Ladouceur University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canadá LOUISE LADOUCEUR TRANS. REVISTA DE TRADUCTOLOGÍA 13, 2009
This article examines the translation of plays lar of Quebec’s urban working class, a sociolect at different moments in the history of French- referred to as joual, became the language of 130 language theatre in Canada. Instrumental in choice for a nascent Quebec literary institution defining a practice and a critical discourse on eager to affirm a specific Québécois identity. theatre translation specific to the Canadian Michel Tremblay’s plays written in joual would context, the first instance to be observed go on to become a model for numerous play- concerns the English translations of French- wrights no longer required to write in standard language drama originating in Quebec at the French with which they were uncomfortable. beginning of the 1970s, a time devoted to the It was a time of rapid expansion for Quebec’s creation of national repertoires in both of drama repertoire, with plays not only written but Canada’s official languages. The second one is also translated into joual, as opposed to being centred on the challenge to translation raised by imported in French translations from France. bilingual francophone drama created in West- Most of the translated plays originated in the ern Canada. prestigious American and British repertoires2 A study by Ruth Martin shows that, five as very little attention was paid to an English- years after the creation of the translation Canadian repertoire still in search of itself. program by the Canada Council for the Arts To celebrate the Centennial of the Canadian in 1972, the number of Canadian books trans- Confederation in 1967, many theatres had been lated from one official language to the other built throughout Canada and given financial had almost doubled (1994: 54). Of the first support and institutional status. Canadian art- 62 plays translated with the support of the ists had been encouraged to write plays for the program, there were 60 plays from Quebec occasion and a few were staged during that year. translated into English. This is rather sur- However, once the celebrations were over, the prising given that 67.29% of the Canadian English theatres went back to producing plays population is unilingual Anglophone, while from the American and British repertoires, and 17.43% is bilingual and 13.25% unilingual Canadian plays were no longer seen on Can- Francophone, most of whom reside in Que- adian stages. As a result, an alternative theatre bec1. One would assume there would be more network sprang up on the periphery of the authors and more plays written in English government-funded regional theatres, dedicat- and more translations from English into ing itself to the creation and promotion of an French. This paradoxical asymmetry in the indigenous English-Canadian drama. Transla- number of plays translated in each direction tion offered several advantages to the poor and is a consequence of the specific evolution of sparsely-attended alternative companies, one the French and the English drama repertoires of which was to produce plays that had already in Canada. proven successful. Quebec’s remarkably prolific At the end of the 1960s, the French vernacu- theatrical production of the time, and especially the success of Québécois playwright Michel 1 See Statistics Canada’s charts on the use of offi- Tremblay, had much to offer to the elabora- cial languages in Canada:
tion of a Canadian theatre repertoire. Tremblay germaine — J’comprends rien pantoute pis j’veux would thus become the quintessential Can- rien savoir. Parle-moé pus… Désâmez-vous adian playwright with eleven plays produced in pour élever ça, pis que c’est que ça vous rapporte? Rien! Rien pantoute… J’t’avertis, 131 English translation between 1972 and 1979, and Linda, chus pas une sarvante moé, icitte! fourteen more between 1980 and 2007. J’ai un million de timbres à coller pis chus These English translations eloquently illus- pas pour les coller tu-seule. Après toute, ces trate the incompatibility of the functions given timbres-là y vont servir à tout le monde! to language in the French and English drama (1968: 9) repertoires of Canada. As opposed to joual, germaine — I don’t want to understand. I don’t a language that bears the marks of a distinct even want to hear about it. I kill myself for way of speaking French specific to Quebec, the whole bunch of you and what do I get the English vernaculars spoken in Canada, in return? Nothing! A big fat nothing! You can’t even do me a little favour! I’m warning although they can exhibit regional accents, you, Linda. I’m sick and tired of waiting on fail to distinguish themselves sufficiently from you. You and everyone else. I’m not a slave, their American equivalents to function as an you know. I’ve got a million stamps to paste emblem of a specific English-Canadian iden- and I’m not about to do it myself. And tity. The vernacular spoken in Newfoundland what’s more, those stamps are for the whole could be considered an exception to this, yet family! (1974: 9-10) it could hardly be an option as it would most In the English version of the play, the names likely be incomprehensible throughout the rest and forms of address of the various characters of Canada3. Translating Tremblay’s plays in have been kept in French, as shown in this an accentuated English vernacular would only excerpt: «Here, Mme. [sic] Dubuc. Let me give have succeeded in shocking the audience and you a hand. […] Thanks Mlle. [sic] Verrette. interfering with the plays’ reception at a critical You’re so kind.» (1974: 25). Many Gallicisms, moment, since they were destined to contribute composed of sentences or words that are kept to an emerging English-Canadian repertoire. in French in the English version, can be found It was thus necessary to adopt another strat- throughout Tremblay’s plays, and some were egy in order to highlight the Canadianness of even added in the revised English version of the plays and to validate their translation and Les-Belles Sœurs published in 1992: «So Manon production. starts screaming at the kids, ‘Catch Maman’s As can be seen see in this excerpt from Les little birdies. Maman’s too tired’» (1992: 29); belles-soeurs in the French and English versions, «Raymond started his cours classique» (ib.: 27)4. the substitute given to joual in Tremblay’s first The importance of the Gallicisms in the plays is a kind of «standard […] generic North English versions of Tremblay’s plays cannot American» (Bosley, 1988: 141) that retains a be overemphasized as they have become their certain level of propriety, but doesn’t exhibit trademark, many of them bearing titles such any particularity that could be perceived as a as: Les Belles Sœurs (1974), Bonjour, là, Bonjour distinctive Canadian attribute. (1975), En Pièces Détachées (1975), Surprise! Sur-
3 For a more detailed analysis on the function of the 4 For more details on the use of Gallicisms in the vernaculars in Canadian drama, see Louise Ladouceur English versions of Tremblay’s plays, see Louise Ladouceur (2007). (2002). LOUISE LADOUCEUR TRANS. REVISTA DE TRADUCTOLOGÍA 13, 2009
prise! (1976), La Duchesse de Langeais (1976), serves another function, destined to affirm a Trois Petits Tours (1977), Damnée Manon, Sacrée francophone identity that is distinctly Québé- 132 Sandra (1981), Sainte-Carmen of the Main (1981) cois. As noted by Pascale Casanova, in a study and La Maison Suspendue (1991). Hybridized in that adopted the sociological model of Pierre a way that fails to echo any real usage in a Can- Bourdieu, for whom «difference is a key fac- adian context where the anglophone majority tor in defining and affirming social identities» is rarely exposed to the influence of French, (my translation) (1979: 191), a local vernacular the English translations replace the French possesses a highly distinctive value for emer- vernacular of the original versions with an ging literatures that employ a major literary amalgam of English and French that, although language such as French, inasmuch as it allows totally artificial, proposed a valuable specificity them to reappropriate this prestigious literary to English Canada’s audiences. Not only did language while proclaiming their own specific it present a model of linguistic cohabitation, use of it (Casanova, 1999: 386). at a time when cohabitation was under threat These functions have no equivalent in Eng- following the separatist upheaval of the 1970 lish, since there is little need for Anglophones October Crisis in Quebec5, but it also acted as to affirm the existence of their language in Can- a symbol of the bilingualism and multicultural- ada and its vernacular forms are not sufficiently ism that serves to distinguish the Canadian distinct to anchor a specific Canadian identity. «mosaic» from the American «melting pot», In English Canada, theatre is a cultural event therefore accentuating something perceived as devoid of the urgency that informs Quebec and specifically Canadian in the emerging English- other French-language drama repertoires cre- Canadian drama repertoire to which the trans- ated across Canada. Taking on an ethnographic lations would contribute. form, the English translations of Tremblay’s The strategies applied to the English plays accentuate the origin of the text by means translation of the plays of Quebec playwright of French words, sentences and titles that invite Michel Tremblay is a consequence of the differ- the spectators to distance themselves from the ence in the function of language in the French harsh reality depicted in the plays, rendering and English drama repertoires of Canada from them more acceptable to the target audience, 1968 to the beginning of the 1980s. For the while underlining Canada’s bilingualism and French minority, theatre performance is an act multiculturalism. of cultural resistance as it allows a threatened Although it has been developing more slowly, language to resonate in the public sphere and the other francophone repertoire under study openly assert the existence of French in front of has much in common with the one we have the English majority6. The use of an oral, ver- just examined as it aims to affirm a distinct nacular form of French specific to Quebec also francophone identity that speaks of and from the margins. In Western Canada, French com- 5 The 1970 October Crisis led to the adoption of the War Measures Act that suspended all civil liberties in munities are small and separated by great dis- Quebec until the Canadian army was withdrawn in Fe- tances. In these minority communities, far from bruary 1971. the French hubs of Eastern Canada, those who 6 For more details on the function of language in plays written and translated in both of Canada’s official langua- speak French are bilingual by necessity. Uni- ges, see Louise Ladouceur (2005). lingual Francophones are virtually non existent TRANS. Revista de Traductología 13, 2009 BILINGUALISM ON STAGE: TRANSLATING FRANCOPHONE DRAMA REPERTOIRES IN CANADA
west of Ontario since English is the sole lan- preface written to the publication of Je m’en vais guage used in the public sphere, while French is à Régina by Roger Auger, the play that inaugur- confined to the private sphere or to the activities ated a francophone repertoire specific to Mani- 133 of a very few French cultural organisations. In toba in Western Canada. Alberta, a western province that covers an area In his history of modern French theatre in of 661,848 square kilometers, with a francophone Manitoba, Roger Léveillé quotes Roland Mahé and bilingual population of 225,085, there is but the director of Cercle Molière, a francophone one professional francophone theatre company, theatre company established in St-Boniface as is the case for the other three provinces in in 1925. According to Mahé, «in 1975, Cercle Western Canada: Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Molière ‘presented the first real Franco- British Columbia. Manitoban play’, Je m’en vais à Regina by Roger Previously perceived as a failure to fully Auger» (my translation) (Léveillé, 2005: 345). appropriate French, the bilingualism of West- This play introduces us to the Ducharme ern Canada’s French communities has taken family, bilingual Francophones that switch eas- on a different value with the globalisation of ily from one language to the other in a French the marketplace. No longer a symbol of inad- text that contains entire scenes in English. If equacy, it has become the sign of a capacity the Ducharmes fail to agree on how to man- to function in two languages, including Eng- age their bilingualism and on the need to speak lish, which is a decided advantage in a global English at home while entertaining an anglo- marketplace dominated by the United States. phone guest, it’s with a vernacular that switches As joual did for Quebec theatre in relation to a from one language to the other that they suc- French repertoire, the bilingual aesthetic of the ceed in doing so, a code-switching character- French-Canadian plays serves as a distinctive istic of the community represented. Thus, the feature, which allows them to distinguish them- scene in which Walter informs Julie that he has selves from the decidedly unilingual Quebec accepted a promotion and will soon be leav- repertoire. However, because bilingualism is ing Winnipeg takes place entirely in English. an attribute specific to French-speaking com- Another scene in which the father and mother munities outside of Quebec, it prevents the welcome Walter into their home also unfolds plays from being produced in Quebec and thus exclusively in English, as can be seen in the first acknowledged by the Québécois theatre institu- example below. Even when speaking amongst tion that occupies the center of the francophone themselves, Auger’s francophone characters theatrical market in Canada and regulates the resort to numerous terms and expressions in legitimacy and circulation of plays written in English, as can be noted in the second excerpt French within the country and abroad. Not wherein Martha speaks to her mother when she only would the bilingualism exhibited in these returns home to pick her up: plays make them almost incomprehensible in Quebec, where the majority of the audience is raoul — Hi Walter. Come in. Give me your jacket I’ll hang it up for you. Well how’s it been unilingual francophone, it would also be the at work? We’re having it tough at the shop. object of an ideological resistance rooted in the Bloody jobs are piling up. You know how way Quebecers perceive Canadian bilingualism. it is at this time of year, with all the back Such a perception is clearly expressed in the orders. LOUISE LADOUCEUR TRANS. REVISTA DE TRADUCTOLOGÍA 13, 2009
thérèse — Hello Walter. production in Quebec in order to illustrate the walter — Hi Mrs. Doosharm [Ducharme]. devastating effects of Canadian bilingualism, 134 thérèse — Julie is downstairs for a while. She’ll it was never produced on a Quebec stage. Not be back in a minute. Sit down won’t you. So only does Godbout’s vision of bilingualism as how are you keeping? (1976: 16) the inevitable demise of French remain vivid in Quebec, but to display such bilingualism on *** stage without resorting to translation would martha — Allo. Hello. You-hou. Y a-t-il quelqu’un? (Pas un son.) Où est-ce qu’ils be unacceptable inasmuch as it would deprive sont bien tous? (Elle se dirige vers les French of its supremacy as the sole language of escaliers.) Allô. Mom. Mom? Anybody narration. The prospect of hearing the invasive there? Mom. ( Julie descend.) (1976: 30) presence of English on stage or a French overly deformed by English, as manifested not only As Leveillé underlines: «If Tremblay could in the code-switching typical to French ver- allow people from Montreal’s working class naculars outside Quebec, but also, and perhaps neighbourhoods to speak joual, why couldn’t more insidiously, in the strong English accent Franco-Manitobans hear French or English displayed by the actors, would seem to sound spoken on stage in a manner that reflects the the death knell of the French language. reality of their surroundings?» (my translation) This vision of bilingualism ignores the fact (2005: 347). Thus, in this manner, Manitoban that Canada has been home to Francophones bilingualism and code-switching were placed outside Quebec for a long while. Living in on equal footing with Quebec joual as repre- small communities, they have learned to coexist sentative of a specific francophone reality. with the vast English majority while continuing In his preface to the play, published in 1976 by to speak, write and create in French. They easily Éditions Leméac, a prominent Quebec publisher, switch from one language to the other, but con- the Québécois critic Jacques Godbout refers to it tinue to claim French as their language of iden- as the emblem of the «disappearance of western tity. Not only is it the language with which they French-Canadians» (my translation), a predic- identify, it is the language with which they want tion that has yet to materialize as they are still to be identified, as bilingual Francophones for to be found in 2008. But perhaps more tellingly, whom bilingualism, far from being incompat- Godbout sees in the play «the Québécois melo- ible with a French identity, is a sine qua non to drama transposed» (1976: xi), «the future that their remaining Francophone. the defenders of bilingualism are preparing for In order to render these plays accessible to us» (my translation) (1976: x). This Québécois a Québécois audience ill-equipped to under- vision of Canadian bilingualism as a symbol of stand them, one must resort to translation. the imminent eradication of French in Canada is But not the type of translation usually called a determinant factor in the relationship Quebec upon, which basically consists of translating has developed with the French-Canadian com- everything into one single language, effectively munities outside its borders. erasing the linguistic duality characteristic of Despite the fact that Auger’s play was pub- these plays and which is essential in repre- lished by a well-known Quebec publisher, senting the francophone reality specific to the and that Godbout fervently encouraged its context where they take place and which they TRANS. Revista de Traductología 13, 2009 BILINGUALISM ON STAGE: TRANSLATING FRANCOPHONE DRAMA REPERTOIRES IN CANADA
describe. In order to preserve the multilingual The two instances studied in this article nature of the plays, it is necessary to explore highlight different francophone realities that other translative strategies based on the use of contribute to the make up of Canada and their 135 performative resources or performance-based representations within various dramatic rep- translation devices7. In the case of Auger’s ertoires. If the French vernacular of Quebec play, it would be very easy to use surtitles, a managed to impose itself on the stage, it was process increasingly popular with francophone subsequently the object of translative strategies theatres in a minority context wishing to open that profoundly modified the function and up their productions to a larger audience by purpose of the language in the plays in order offering performances accompanied by English to contribute to the elaboration of an English- surtitles. This translative strategy, similar to Canadian drama repertoire. In Western Canada, that of movie subtitles, has several advantages: the bilingual dialogue in plays originating from it is quick and relatively inexpensive, and it small francophone communities allows them allows an audience to see the play in its ori- to express their own specificity, but at the same ginal form and thus to have integral access to time considerably reduces their circulation in the foreign works that otherwise would remain marketplace of French cultural products in Can- unintelligible. Toronto’s Théâtre Français and ada and abroad. Nonetheless, with the increased Saskatoon’s Théâtre du Jour have both been value that globalisation gives to multilingual employing this process for several years now. resources, the francophone minorities’ bilingual- It has also recently been used by Edmonton’s ism takes on another significance. Previously Unithéâtre, where three plays produced in April looked upon as an inability to fully appropriate 2007, and in October and December of 2008 French and thus combat Anglicization, it is now have been staged in French accompanied by seen as an asset, inasmuch as it indicates an abil- English surtitles8. For a uniligual francophone ity to function in French and in English, thus public in Quebec, it would be a question of providing access to a global marketplace that has integrating French surtitles into a bilingual play adopted English as a lingua franca. The Québé- whenever English dialogue occurs. The sur- cois are not insensitive to this new linguistic and titles used during passages delivered in English economic factor, which could very well modify would, in effect, enable French to remain the their perceptions of bilingualism and its mani- primary language of narration inasmuch as it festations on stage. Rather than a symbol of the would be the only language through which the imminent demise of French in Canada, being play could be understood in its entirety. bilingual can be viewed as having the capacity to function with more than one language, in this 7 For more details on performance-based translation instance the unavoidable English of commercial devices, see Louise Ladouceur and Nicole Nolette (for- exchanges, while continuing to identify oneself thcoming). first and foremost as a Francophone, without 8 The plays are: Le cadeau d’Einstein by Vern Thiessen (English translation and surtitles by Manon Beaudoin); doubting that this identity is legitimate and Bashir Lazar by Evelyne de la Chenellière (English trans- should be recognized as such. lation by Morween Brebner, adapted for English surtitles by Shavaun Liss and Louise Ladouceur), and Trains fantô- mes by Mansel Robinson , French translation by Jean Marc recibido dicembre 2008 Dalpé (English text adapted for surtitles by Shavaun Liss). aceptado febrero 2009 LOUISE LADOUCEUR TRANS. REVISTA DE TRADUCTOLOGÍA 13, 2009
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